Thai Food Culture through Grammatical Patterns of English Translation

Abstract

Thai food has been recognized and become popular across the world. To present Thai food culture to foreigners, English translation of Thai menu is needed. Poor English translation can lead to misunderstanding of Thai culture and the taste of Thai food. On the other hand, proper English translation helps to communicate cultural identity and present traditional Thai cuisine. The research, therefore, aims to investigate the English translation of Thai menus and to propose the grammatical patterns in English translation of Thai menus. 290 Thai menu items with English names and description are obtained from four to five stars hotels employing expatriate executive chefs to operate the hotel restaurants. This is to ensure the comprehensibility of English translation of the Thai menus. According to types and serving styles of Thai food culture, the menu items are categorized into 10 groups: salads, soup, curries, fried, deep-fried, steamed, baked/ braised/ roasted, grilled/barbeque, rice/ noodles/chili dips, and desserts. After grouping, 148 menu items are selected to be analyzed for grammatical patterns of English translation in each category. The analytical form is created to organize and group the menu items. The significance of the study is the intention to propose proper grammatical patterns in English translation of Thai menus to be used as a guideline in translating Thai menus into English language. Moreover, the patterns will be used and practiced in translating more Thai menus in class of “English for Food and Beverage Service” course.



Author Information
Piyada Low, Kasetsart University, Thailand

Paper Information
Conference: ACE2013
Stream: Education

This paper is part of the ACE2013 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


To cite this article:
Low P. (2014) Thai Food Culture through Grammatical Patterns of English Translation ISSN: 2186-5892 – The Asian Conference on Education 2013 – Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/2186-5892.20130588
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/2186-5892.20130588


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon